mnartists.org: August Schwerdfeger

On the Subject of Vomit, and its Application in the Field of Modern Art

August Schwerdfeger — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:57:30 GMT

The Underbelly of Understanding

August Schwerdfeger — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 03:56:18 GMT

Are you dancing around in your little garden of dreams, envisioning a world in which computers or robots understand every word you say -- as you watch the pigs fly by, making note that you saw two Old Spots, a Hampshire, and a few more specimens that are not in the [i]Audubon Field Guide to the Airborne Swine of North America[/i]? Do you see that large shadow descending? That is the cold hard boot of reality. Yes, the same reality that proves one cannot run a program without running it. You see, that understanding has an underbelly, which is approximately as sensitive as a one-ton lead block balanced upon a pin. For a computer to understand a sentence, first it must scan it from letters into words, throwing away all the spaces, and parse the words into an [i]abstract syntax tree[/i], which is a fancy name for [i]something that you can't draw in under a century, but that the computer understands well enough.[/i] This work contains actual constructs of the underbelly of understanding. Firstly, there is a scanner that can understand the words [i]underbelly[/i] and [i]understanding[/i] (green); secondly, an LR parsing machine of the kind invented for us by that unparalleled genius, Prof. D. E. Knuth (red); thirdly, a parse table allowing a computer to parse multiples of a variable known as [i]x[/i] (blue); fourthly, fifteen rules of logic providing instructions on how to throw away all the spaces (white).

Porta Tenebrarum

August Schwerdfeger — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:44:56 GMT

This drawing was featured in the "Art of Horror" exhibition at the Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis. Here is my statement as appeared in the book of artists' statements for that exhibition. ----- The motivation for creating this piece was quite simple: I was bored stiff. There are only so many times that one is able to listen to a comatose electrical-engineering professor explain how to draw a 4-variable K-map before one does one of two things: 1. Fly off the handle and start shrieking at him, "Can't you start talking about PALs instead?" 2. Think about something else for a change. I, opting for the latter, scribbled this pencil sketch on a piece of my note-paper while the lecture dragged on. The comatose professor having shown me that electrical-engineering was quite definitely not my thing, I switched to computer-science; and it was while studying this that I became aware of the existence of certain graphics-manipulation programs that did not cost several arms with Godzilla's foot-paw thrown in to cover the sales-tax. Scanning the pencil-sketch, I proceeded to colorize and otherwise manipulate it, bringing it into the form herein shown.

From Bricks to Dust

August Schwerdfeger — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 03:49:31 GMT

This is my published novel: a supernatural thriller set in a gothic metropolis that is being stalked by a serial killer known as the Grim Reaper. It is available from the publisher, iUniverse.com.

Midnight Chess & Coffee

August Schwerdfeger — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 16:01:29 GMT

2005 Dunn Bros Local Flavor Winner